North Dakota Voters Say It’s Time to Retire the Fighting Sioux Nickname

North Dakota voters may have finally put an end to the long fight over whether the University of North Dakota can retire the Fighting Sioux nickname. In preliminary returns from a referendum on Tuesday, with 84 percent of precincts reporting, “yes” votes, in favor of dropping the nickname, were leading, 67 percent to 32 percent, the Grand Forks Herald reported. Defenders of the nickname did not concede defeat, vowing to fight on. The UND Alumni Association and Foundation led the campaign in favor of retiring the nickname, because of the potential harm the university and its athletics program would face if they kept it. The NCAA was poised to impose penalties under a 2005 policy that requires Division I institutions to do away with “abusive or hostile” references to American Indians.